Natural conditions of development

The natural care for the baby is based on an approach based on its natural needs, and is a necessary prerequisite for the formation of ecological thinking and harmonious interaction with the world. He proceeds from the premise that the very natural needs of the child are directed at its harmonious development, which is ensured by their satisfaction.

Child development is the interaction of two factors - the implementation of an internal embedded development program and external conditions that ensure its specific content. In other words, according to the ongoing internal development program, we must provide the child with some living conditions that would correspond to this program. Any inconsistencies in external conditions to internal needs lead to a violation of harmony, to a violation of natural development, and then to compensation for this violation in the form of an anti-ecological method of thinking and behavior in all senses.

The basis of the natural approach is the re-creation of the natural conditions of existence in a modern quality of life at a different qualitative level. Homo sapiens as a biological species has arisen as a result of the impact on the distant ancestor of man for a long time of many different factors, among which the surrounding natural conditions in their diversity and variability. Today, we are deprived of the action of many natural factors. However, notes N. Dubinin, "as a biological species of Homo sapiens for 40 thousand years of its existence has not undergone any significant changes."This means that our body remains in some sense programmed to live conditions that accompany the formation of Homo sapiens as a biological species. This is the condition of our biological development, which is the foundation of our social life.

It is easy to conclude that providing the necessary conditions for biological development is an important prerequisite for the manifestation of social qualities in the human being, the inherent potency of intelligence. In the perinatal period, these conditions of biological development are realized in satisfying the natural needs inherent in the mother and child.

However, human needs are not purely biological. They are peculiarly "cultivated", linked, connected with social needs. But this "cultivation" should not lead to oblivion of the biological laws of our existence, should not alienate us from those natural conditions through which the biological prerequisites of our sociality and intelligence are created.

In the first year of life, the child's needs are very simple and can be met very naturally. An attempt to rationalize these needs, to "scientifically" lead them not only to unnecessary troubles, but also to harmful natural processes. Care of the child during the periods of newborn and breastfeeding can not be reduced to a list of recommendations. It is much more important to learn the main principle - not to interfere without the need for a natural process of growth and development of the child, but to create conditions under which this process would be really natural.

Below we will consider the basic vital needs of the baby, which, of course, do not exhaust them completely. But, it seems to us, these needs are the leading, the most essential for the development of the child.

1. The need to have parents

And not only formally, because the child always has a father and mother, namely in the sense of those inner sensations that they should give him.

First of all, this feeling of love. Love does not lend itself to rational description. This feeling is comprehended by man only in direct experience. And just like the life of an adult person, love gives some very special meaning, also for a baby, the feeling of love coming from parents gives him a vital impulse, something like a "living worth" installation. Even in the physical presence of a mother who does not have a sense of love for her child, he will feel abandonment, the absence of much needed support during this period, and, as a consequence, a depressive state.

With a sense of love connected with a sense of security. The feeling of safety is essential for a child in a world unfamiliar to him. It allows him to master without fear. Otherwise, the feeling of fear arising when encountering a new one leads to a so-called mental retardation, that is, to the desire to return to a state of relative calm and serenity that the child experienced in the womb. Reduced research activity, the world seems aggressive. This pattern is fixed and in the future becomes a characteristic of the personality of an adult.

The attention required by the child is a natural consequence of the fact that birth is the completion of only the first act of the life scenario, when only the physical body is ready for a relatively autonomous existence. The child and mother remain bound by an invisible umbilical cord, through which the finer spheres of the human being continue to feed.

"Lack of love, affection, attention from the adult, maybe even more dangerous for the baby than a moderate lack of nutrition."

Mother and father perform various functions in communication with the child. And although the child is tied in the first year of life primarily to the mother, his communication with the father is also important. When they talk about the role of the father and the psychological consequences of a child's development in an incomplete family, they usually mean the age when in a normal family the father becomes a significant figure in the eyes of the child. However, its significance is evident even in the course of pregnancy, and not only in the sense of the mental state of the mother, which naturally depends on the presence or absence of the child's father and on family relationships. Taking a kind of participation in pregnancy, communicating with the child by available means( for example, trying to gently probe his position in the abdomen of the mother, listening to his heartbeat, "tuning" to it, using meditation practice), the father establishes a bridge between himself and the child, which is an analogbonding between mother and child. The father acquires the ability to subtly feel the baby and, accordingly, feel what his child can give him.

There are many cases where the prepared father thus perfectly accepted the birth of the mother, not knowing even the basics of obstetrics, acting only intuitively. In this case, in some complications, the fathers performed the right actions from the obstetric point of view. One of the characteristic sensations in this case was the feeling of the child as himself.

It would be wrong to compare maternal and paternal feelings only in terms of their intensity. These are different feelings in accordance with the different roles of the mother and father, they qualitatively differ from each other - as manifestations of the female and masculine principles. Communicating with the child, the father creates a qualitatively different environment for him than the mother, and thus causes qualitatively different responses in the child.

Images of the mother and father are archetypal. Filling them with their content, the mother and father form the child's idea of ​​a woman and a man, about the interaction in nature of two opposite qualities, which can be called female and male. The poverty of the child's contact with the father, including early periods of life, leads to some one-sidedness, impoverishes the notion of reality.

As for the image of the father and the man, it is quite consistent with today's reality, when the father appears standing aside, detached( or self-removing), far from the problems associated with bearing and giving birth to his baby, and then afraid to take him in his arms.

The image of a modern man is the image of a getter, a kind of civilized savage who is always busy with "very important" matters, and under this mask avoiding the difficulties that are associated with the upbringing of the baby. How often the participation of the father in the early stages of the development of the child is limited only by the process of conception. And only when the child is born, born and nurtured by the mother, when the most critical stages are behind, then you can condescend and put on your father's mask. But the time of "fatherlessness", which forms a "gap" in the environment surrounding the child, leads to a "gap" in his mind, although filled with some ideal, but very far from reality images.

2. Sensory filling

The first year of life is a period of sensory-motor development. At this time, the most ancient evolutionarily lower parts of the brain develop. The logic of development is that the higher departments are fully formed only with the developed lower ones. At the same time, the premature activation of the higher divisions leads to the underdevelopment of the lower ones. Development goes in stages, and we must try to maximize the conditions necessary for the passage of each stage.

For the development of the lower parts of the brain, the influx of nerve impulses in them is necessary, which is ensured by an appropriate load on the sensory organs. The sensory organs of the child are activated immediately after birth by the new environment in which it appears. However, in the conditions of modern obstetrics, with the usual method of treating a newborn, his sensory systems are overloaded. The level of irritants passes the permissible limit, causing distress. Further living conditions-swaddling, thermal comfort, insufficient level of skin stimulation-lead to what is called sensory deprivation, that is, to lack of sufficient sensory stimulation.

In addition, it is important not only the quantity, but also the quality of the stimuli received by the child. Therefore, we can talk about certain sensory needs of the child.

In natural childbirth, the baby's primary sensory needs are met by contact with the skin-to-skin mother. This contact and soft stroking, which begins to make the mother, activate the nerve endings of the skin. Applying to the chest in a normal feeding posture ensures eye contact between the mother and the child, leading to the imprint of the baby's face on the mother, thanks to the pre-structure of our vision scheme for recognizing the human face. Sucking the chest gives the first taste sensations and, in addition, activates the work of the vestibular apparatus and hearing. The first auditory sensations are also associated most often with the fact that the mother begins to talk with the child. The smell of the mother is imprinted. There are observations that the baby can recognize the mother by smell.

Satisfaction of these elementary sensory needs( by applying the baby to the breast after birth) helps strengthen bonding. However, all these stimuli must continue to operate, especially since this is achieved extremely simply during mother-child contact, during feeding, playing, gymnastics, etc. It is necessary that the child receives similar stimuli from his father.

In the first months of a child's life, what can be called the resolving power of his sensory systems is laid, as well as the range of perceptions. Distinction of color shades, sound intervals, differences in odors and taste, as well as skin sensitivity develops precisely during this period. But for this development, all this must be presented to the child. In other words, the environment of the baby should be sufficiently enriched with stimuli, differing not only in quality, but also in shades.

This is well illustrated by the experiment of American scientists D. Spikelli and G. Hirsch. From the moment of birth, the kittens were exposed to optical stimuli either with only vertical lines, or only with horizontal ones. If the kitten was kept in a "horizontal" environment, then, becoming an adult, he could not pass even between the legs of the chair, and in the case of a "vertical" environment he could not climb over the smallest obstacle. The eye did not develop the appropriate detectors.

Experiments with rats raised in an enriched environment( with a large amount of sensory information - sound, light, etc.) and isolation, showed that the former "are significantly richer in electroencephalographic indices, more developed cortical areas of the brain, larger nerve cells themselves, there are intensive metabolic processes in the brain. "

Thus, the importance for the child of a rich stimulus environment is obvious. But it is important that these incentives are of the most natural origin. The best way to provide such an environment is to spend more time with him in nature from the first weeks or even the days of his life, if weather conditions permit. The fact that a child has met in early childhood becomes for him a norm, to which he will always consciously or unconsciously strive. Imprinting the sky, singing birds, the noise of the river or the sea, trees and flowers, rain or snow, is an important factor in the development of ecological thinking.(Of course, the perception of something by the child goes against the background of the perception of the same parents.) Therefore, what emotions and experiences parents experience is also imprinted on the baby).

At home, the child should be more familiar with various items and materials. First of all with natural. Let him hold a wooden stick, a stone, various fabrics. Soft, firm, smooth, rough, dull, sharp - with all this you need to get acquainted. It is better to prefer wooden toys to plastic ones. Hanging pictures in soft tones around the baby's bed and their shift will create the necessary visual stimuli. We need to talk with the child, giving him the desired pattern of communication. It's good to periodically sing songs to him and make music. Should prevail tender, calm music, preferably performed not on electronic instruments. However, one can not deny, as is usually done, and various directions of modern variety music. In this regard, especially gets rock'n'roll. Nevertheless, it is noticed that it is this kind of music that best develops a sense of rhythm in the child, especially if you perform with it on your hands movements in time with the music. If only it was not too much.

In general, you need to use completely different possibilities. For example, if your mother cooks dinner, you can give the child a cleaned carrot. Let him put it into her mouth, rather than pick up a plastic toy.

Another moment - familiarity with natural factors: water, sun rays, snow, air is warm and cool. More about this will be discussed in the chapter on hardening.

It is necessary to remember the extreme importance of musculoskeletal stimulation, which delivers a large number of impulses to the brain, thus ensuring its development. It is necessary to carry the child in his arms and in different positions as much as possible( if he does not, of course, sleep): just as in the position for feeding, with one hand under the breast, vertically with an emphasis on your shoulder, on the thigh sideto yourself, as our distant ancestors did, and how monkeys do it - in special adaptations like "kangaroo."At the same time the baby learns many positions of the body, develops physically well, early( relative to standard norms) starts to hold the head, sit, crawl. If the child is always naked, he gets a natural massage. A special massage should be considered more as a restorative and remedy.

Breastfeed it is also better naked, and in contact skin-to-skin with the mother.

Do not be afraid to take your baby with you to bed. This also provides the necessary contact. In addition, it is convenient for the mother, saving her from having to get up for night feeding. It is noticed that the sick child recovers much faster if the mother takes him to sleep with him.

Discard the fear of crushing the child in a dream. After all, the mother, breastfeeding, missing the deepest, the worst phase of sleep. She is always on the alert. Experience shows that with good mental contact with the child this can not even make the father, inevitably waking up in a dangerous situation. And these situations practically do not arise.

It should also be dismissed the widespread stupidity that the child gets used to sleeping with his mother( especially if it's a boy) and about the "wrong sexual education" that the "science" representatives of the child consider us as their duty to say,sleep in one bed with other children or with adults does not create conditions for proper rest, contributes to infection with infectious diseases, can lead to a premature awakening of sexual feelings. "

Experience shows that, by typing some "critical mass" of contact, the child himself deviates from this. And if you believe in "wrong sexual education," then continue this thought logically and stop breastfeeding.

3. Need for movement

Above we noted that the first year of life is a period of sensory-motor development. This year, the principle articulated by IA Arshavsky is particularly evident, according to which the supporting system of the child is the locomotor system. Simply put, this means that the proper development of this system depends on the normal development of all other systems, including the child's mental development.

Nature has provided the infant with various physiological mechanisms, through which it implements motor activity.

First of all, these are reflexes( grasping, plantar, stepping, creeping, etc.), playing an important role in the life of a newborn and being indicators of his condition. AA Ukhtomsky first pointed out the importance of reflexes in the development of the child. "... In contrast to the classical concepts of the reflex, AA Ukhtomsky believed that the reflex is not a reaction of passive, reactive reflection, or withdrawal and protection from the stimulus, on the contrary, the reflex is a reaction. .. rapprochement with the stimulus, which should lead to exercise, exacerbation and differentiation of sensitivity, to enriching familiarity with the environment. "

Secondly, this is the so-called spontaneous motor activity. In a dream the child with certain periodicity makes muscle contractions and movements. This activity, expressed in involuntary movements, is clearly visible even during breastfeeding. As IA Arashavsky points out, "... in itself, the intake of food( in the newborn - milk from the mother's breast) without the exercise of motor activity does not ensure further growth and development."And further: "Muscular activity, triggered by the activity of nerve centers, providing the body with the opportunity to carry out a variety of contacts with the environment, is almost the main factor determining the development of the brain, increasing its mass, and thus its information capacity."

Daily maintenance of certain reflexes from the first days of life as a kind of gymnastics is not only useful, but also a pleasant procedure for communicating with the child. Let's list the main reflexes:

"Grasping" reflex( or Robinson's reflex) - if you put your thumbs in the palm of your child, he will grab them firmly. This girth is so strong that the baby can be raised. This increases the overall muscle tone. This reflex constantly "works" in dynamic gymnastics and therefore does not require separate attention;

Reflex "crawling"( or Bauer's reflex) - if you put your palms on the soles of the child's feet, he will push away from them and creep. It is better to do this when the baby lies on his stomach.

Step response - if you hold the child under the arms vertically, lean his feet against a hard surface and slightly tilt the body forward, then he will start to do pacing movements, sometimes "confusing" the legs.

Plantar reflex( or Babinsky's reflex) - if it is easy to press the sole directly under the fingers, then all fingers except the big one will bend, the big one will straighten up. Support this reflex is convenient to carry out with the foot massage.

Talent Reflex - if you slide your finger along the back of the child along the spine about 1 cm from it, then the baby's body will curved in an arcuate fashion. The support of this reflex is combined with the usual gentle strokes and massage.

There are other reflexes. For example, Moro's reflex, expressed in that if you slightly pull the diaper, then the child lying on it, will divorce his hands and strain his muscles. It is believed that this reflex remained from the need to have time to catch on to the mother in the course of her sudden movement. Refresh Moreau "works" when tossing the baby up during the game, which should be accustomed to it gradually. In the future, the feeling of "free fall" causes the child indescribable ecstasy.

Another reflex - breath holding when submerged under water - is carried out during water training.

The most important requirement for providing the infant with motor activity is a categorical refusal to swaddle. Unfortunately, the practice of tight changing is still very common among parents. The ability to swaddle a child is considered by them as part of the science of motherhood. And the newly minted mothers master this with no less persistence than the policeman learns to neutralize the criminal.

We have already said that the practice of swaddling in maternity homes is convenient for staff, since the swaddled child sleeps longer in conditions of separation from the mother and no doctor can explain the rationale behind this barbaric procedure.

Parents often justify swaddling the walking prejudice "to be a flat" and supposedly an ancient tradition. Yes, indeed, in the practice of folk medicine, a tight swaddling was performed, performed in a special way, for therapeutic purposes, mainly to correct the defects of the musculoskeletal system. For the same purposes uses the so-called "calculations" and modern therapeutic exercise for newborns and infants. But this in no way can spread to a healthy child. This is a necessity, and the need is sad, as it limits the movements of the child.

Swaddling, restricting the movement of the baby, slows down its physical and mental development, does not allow fresh air to enter the skin, makes it difficult to evaporate from the skin, fixes the body in an unnatural position, disrupts blood circulation, leads to the rapid extinction of many reflexes. Not allowing the baby to fulfill his natural needs, such as movement and comfort, swaddling leads to a feeling of helplessness and to "refusal to search", which, as we said earlier, reduces the creative potential inherent in man.

"There is reason to believe," writes IA Arshavsky, "that such swaddling instills in the child the future psychology of subordination and has a number of other psychologically negative consequences."

Monitoring of babies born naturally at home shows that they are active from the very first minutes after birth, showing a pronounced interest in the environment. If the child is not swaddled, then he spends less time in a dream, he starts performing complex manipulations with objects earlier, smiling and pronouncing the first meaningful sounds.

Put the naked baby on the diaper on your tummy. Top with another diaper, and then with a blanket, depending on the ambient temperature( the diaper under the blanket will be protected by a blanket if the baby "gets it").No need to invent unnecessary difficulties. Give the child to develop freely.

More fully the need for movement is realized by gymnastics and swimming.

4. The need for physiological stress

Yes, yes, it is stress. We are accustomed to understand under stress something dangerous, harmful to health. Often, parents who deal with children with dynamic gymnastics and pour cold water on them are accused of being stressed by their children! And the accusers are right: the child is really under stress. They are not right in the other - stress in any case can not be regarded as a negative factor.

The notion of stress as a necessary condition for development is poorly covered in popular literature for parents. However, the acceptance or non-acceptance of many vitally important attitudes towards the child depends on understanding this question. The notion that a child "should not be subjected to stress" leads to the creation of "greenhouse" conditions for existence, insufficient sensory stimulation and impoverishment of the environment.

So, what is stress?

The notion of stress was introduced by Hans Selye: "Stress is the nonspecific response of the body to any demand presented to it."

Absolutely different factors( and it does not matter whether they are pleasant to us or not), causing stress, stressors, - give the same biological response in the body( hence the so-called nonspecific reaction).The stress response is a stress-induced need to implement an adaptive function and restore the normal state.

Stress can not be avoided. Our body is constantly adapting to something."Even in a state of complete relaxation, a sleeping person experiences some stress: the heart continues to pump blood, the intestines digest yesterday's dinner, and the respiratory muscles provide the movement of the chest, even the brain does not fully rest during the periods of dreams."

G. Selye offers the following theoretical model for illustrating the relationship of stress and different levels of the stimulus.

It is well seen that the level of stress is never equal to zero."Complete freedom from stress means death."

Let's notice and another - not only excessive irritation, but also its absence( deprivatsiya) lead to an increase in the level of stress.

G. Selye identifies three phases of the stress reaction( or, as they say, the general adaptation syndrome) to any effect:

1. An anxiety reaction. In this phase, there is a process of mobilizing reserves, but the resistance of the body is not enough. At the initial stage, it even decreases.

2. The phase of resistance. The level of resistance rises above normal.

3. The phase of exhaustion. After a long action of the stressor, to which the organism has adapted, the stocks of adaptive energy are gradually depleted. Again there are signs of an anxiety reaction, but now they are irreversible.

G. Sellier makes the following conclusion: "Our reserves of adaptive energy are comparable with inherited wealth: one can take from his account, but one can not make additional contributions of adaptive energy beyond inherited from parents."

Selye admits that the stage of exhaustion after short-term loads can be reversible, and stress can not only reduce, but also increase the body's resistance to harmful factors. This type of stress is called eustress, whereas stress, leading to illness, distress.

However, in any case, "complete depletion of the adaptive energy is irreversible." When her reserves run out, old age and death begin. "

It was these views on stress that ultimately led to a stereotype that stress is always bad. Yes, we can increase the resistance of the body to some kind of impact, but for this we need to pay.

IA Arshavsky notes: "G. Selye introduced the concept of" adaptation disease "into science, in other words, he believed that adaptation should be paid for by the disease, which is the root of the current attitude to stress as to some extreme pathogenic factor, which,often recurring, is the source of the disease, therefore, stressful situations should be avoided in every possible way. "

The data obtained in IA Arshavsky's studies allowed us to concretise the notion of stress and refute the current notion of the predetermined value of the energy fund( adaptive energy) in the maternal egg and about development as a "gradually decaying recovery of the organism."IA Arshavsky gave the following definition of adaptation:

"Adaptation is the reaction of the physiological and morphological transformation of the organism and its parts, as a result of which its structural and energy potentials, i.e., free energy and working capabilities, and general nonspecific resistance".

The stressors that cause this form of adaptive response have been called physiological because "the energy expenditure they cause is recouped by energy acquisitions above the original level."Adaptive response to such stimuli is called the reaction of physiological stress.

Selye, in fact, described the pathological stress.

The reaction of physiological stress also has three phases, but they are fundamentally different.

When the reaction of physiological stress also increases the resistance of the body to the action of factors that have the character of pathological stressors.

As a result of the action of physiological stress, there is a "spiral transition of the developing organism to a new, higher level of potential work opportunities."

All this allows us to conclude: "In other words, it should not be about the gradual waste of the hereditary predetermined energy fund, but about the continuous enrichment of it."

Therefore, we must distinguish stress from pathological and stress physiological.

Physiological stress is a necessary condition for the development of the body."Our investigations have established," writes IA Arshavsky, "that the growth and normal development of the organism are possible only under the conditions of the action of physiological forms of stressful stimulation."

In natural conditions( in animals), such stimuli are fluctuations in the parameters of the environment( temperature drops, humidity, lack of food, etc.). In our conditions, we lack many natural physiological stimuli. Therefore, it is more correct to say that a child needs stress, that is, he needs to create it. Of course, we mean the physiological one.stress.

What are the irritants that cause a reaction of physiological stress? We list the main:

1) motor activity is the main development condition, discussed earlier;

2) temperature differences and - especially - ambient temperature below the thermo-comfort zone;

3) hypoxemic exposure, i.e., a moderate lack of oxygen;

4) solar radiation is a natural factor, also causing an adaptation reaction;

5) limited caloric content of food.

All these needs are provided with natural child care, gymnastics, water training and hardening.

Concerning the limited caloric content of food, we note that, of course, the child should not starve. However, with a natural approach and, accordingly, natural breastfeeding, the child develops normal regulation of nutritional needs. He will eat only when he is hungry, and only as much as he needs.

It is very important that the loads offered to the child do not cross the boundaries of physiological stress, thus acquiring the character of pathological stresses.

In addition to physiological and pathological stress stimuli, IA Arshavsky introduces the concept of dissipators, i.e., those environmental influences that do not cause adaptive stress response and thus reduce adaptive possibilities. This is excessive nutrition, inactivity, high temperature of the environment. This also includes a lack of sensory stimulation.

5. The need for breastfeeding

We have devoted a separate chapter to breastfeeding. Here we only note that breastfeeding( not just breast milk, but breastfeeding) is an essential part of the natural nurturing of the baby. And breastfeeding should also be natural.

Today, breastfeeding is turned into a "science" with clear recommendations and routines. However, breastfeeding is, first of all, an act committed between two loving creatures, the reduction of which to strict schemes leads to the destruction of its most important component - the weakening of love ties, bonding.

Fortunately, many mothers do not stand this "science", preferring her intuition and maternal flair. One should always proceed from the natural needs of the child, and not subordinate it( and oneself) to forcibly science-like speculative rules.

These are the basic needs of the baby, necessary for its development. They are satisfied fairly simply and naturally, provided that parents also strive in their lives for simplicity and naturalness. The way of life of a child always depends on the way of life of parents, therefore first of all you need to acquire your own experience. If parents themselves do not know what physical exercise is, they can hardly instill a taste for it to their baby. If parents not only do not know how to swim, but they are afraid of water, especially cold, about what activities in water and hardening can we talk about? If everything in the house is subject to the food cult, the child will support it immediately.

The family should be treated as a whole. A child can not be on his own, he learns the way of life of his nearest social environment. Therefore, the natural cultivation of the baby is primarily the work of parents over their way of life and over their relationships.